"I don't have much respect for you" - Tom Hanks on people not following coronavirus guidelines

Record ID: 1561427

  • Title: "I don't have much respect for you" - Tom Hanks on people not following coronavirus guidelines
  • Date: 6th July 2020
  • Summary: UNIDENTIFIED LOCATION (JUNE 30, 2020) (REUTERS VIA CISCO) (SOUNDBITE) (English) ACTOR AND WRITER, TOM HANKS, SAYING: "So there was an awful lot in the original screenplay that slowly got compressed out, that slowly... But I will say, that's the way all movies are. You start with a long, huge board of things you want to put in and you slowly remove those items that you love to get but you can't quite make happen for any number of budgetary or imaginary or technological reasons but what is left is a really fabulous DNA of the way I saw the movie to begin with."
  • Embargoed: 20th July 2020 21:07
  • Keywords: COVID-19 Coronavirus Greyhound Tom Hanks cinemas theaters war movie writer
  • Location: UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATION; LOS ANGELES / BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES;
  • City: UNIDENTIFIED FILMING LOCATION; LOS ANGELES / BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES;
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Arts / Culture / Entertainment,Film
  • Reuters ID: LVA00DCLOAK3X
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: When it comes to the coronavirus, Hollywood star Tom Hanks has first-hand experience. He also has some blunt advice for others.
    "Whether or not we like it, we're all in this together, we're all affected by this so let's, at the very least there's a lot of stuff you can do beyond that," Hanks said during an interview with Reuters. "But at the very least, three tiny things is in everybody's wheelhouse, if you choose to do them. Wear a mask, wash your hands, social distance. If you can't do that, ah, I don't have much respect for you."
    Hanks and his singer songwriter wife Rita Wilson were two of the first high profile figures to contract coronavirus back in March.
    The actor, who was promoting his new World War 2 film "Greyhound, added "If you drive a car, you've got to use your turn signal, not drive too fast and avoid pedestrians. Those are three things that should be pretty easy to do and COVID-19, if we social distance, wear a mask and wash our hands, we'll be able to get along so let's do that."
    The pandemic has wreaked havoc on Hollywood. 'Greyhound', with its reported 50 million dollar budget, was postponed three times theatrically from March 22 to May 8 and finally June 12. Now the film is being released on new streaming site Apple TV+.
    "Well it's heartbreaking," said Hanks. "This movie, it's mixed, it's shot, it's edited, it's all put together for a big, massive, immersive experience that can really only come out when you're in a movie theater with at least 100 other people and then all those people come out with 'Greyhound' in common. That's why you're in this business as well as I am because that experience is one of a kind, unique every time you go off and see it to see a motion picture. Alright. That's the truth but it's gone. It's absolutely gone. It doesn't exist."
    However, Hanks believes it's still possible to watch the film as it was intended. "You can have an immersive experience watching 'Greyhound'. It's not the same as seeing it in a cinema - rats! But that's a new reality that everyone has to adhere to and we do know that streaming is here to stay, it's not going to go away. I miss the option of being able to go to a motion picture theater and seeing it. Thus is the realities of COVID-19 and we've got to roll with these punches."
    Hanks wrote the screenplay of 'Greyhound', adapting it from the 1955 novel by C.S. Forester 'The Good Shepherd', about a naval officer embarking on his first wartime mission in World War Two.
    Commander Ernest Krause's mission is to protect a convoy of ships across the Atlantic from German U-boats.
    Hanks admitted that he overwrote the screenplay. "I knew that a lot of it would not live to see the light of day but in the process of dreaming big, what you can do when you only have a blank piece of paper,"
    He added "That's the way all movies are. You start with a long, huge board of things you want to put in and you slowly remove those items that you love to get but you can't quite make happen for any number of budgetary or imaginary or technological reasons but what is left is a really fabulous DNA of the way I saw the movie to begin with."
    'Greyhound' has been a hit with critics with an 80% rating on review aggregate website rottentomatoes.com. It is set to stream on Apple TV+ on July 10.
    (Production: Rollo Ross)
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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